Josh Gordon is scheduled to be released from a rehabilitation center later this month, and the Cleveland Browns wide receiver is hoping the NFL will reinstate him once he completes the program.
Tim Montgomery, an Olympic gold medalist sprinter who has been training with Gordon, told Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com that he is confident Gordon will play football at some point in 2017.
“He’s coming,” Montgomery said. “I think he’s going to be there this season. … “He’s been clean, so we’re hoping after 90 days he’s reinstated and they put him back in the league, which it looks like they’re going to do that.”
Montgomery confirmed that Gordon checked himself into rehab on June 21, and he entered a 90-day program. He is expected to complete the program in a little over a week. While the NFL could be hesitant to reinstate Gordon because of all the chances he has had, Montgomery sees a truly changed man this time around. The Olympian tried to explain why Gordon has gotten himself into trouble so many times.
“Josh feels like he’s been let down by the people closest to him,” Montgomery explained. “Where Josh comes from, marijuana is considered like a cigarette. That’s just his mentality. Josh has been tossed around. He goes to college and he gets kicked out. Then he goes to the NFL and he gets kicked out. Josh feels like he’s been punished repeatedly for something everyone else is doing.”
Montgomery also said he believes Gordon was clean when the NFL denied him reinstatement in May, but the wide receiver missed some mandatory drug tests. He insists Gordon missed the tests because he would go out of town and not answer his phone — not because he was trying to cover anything up.
The latest comments made by Roger Goodell did not make it sound like Gordon will be returning to the NFL any time soon. That could change once Gordon is out of rehab, but there’s no way of knowing. One thing that is clear is that if Gordon is reinstated, he will be down to his final strike.
